As some people age, they find themselves visiting the hospital or seeking other forms of medical care on an increasingly frequent basis. If you're the adult child of someone who is aged, your heart can race when you get a call that your parent has been admitted to the hospital or an urgent care center. If these instances are common, you may think about having your parent move in with you or look for a room in a local nursing home. However, an alternative to consider is hiring a home health agency to provide aides to visit your parent at home. Here are some ways that having a home health aide may limit your parent's hospital visits.

Lower Risk Of Falls

Falls inside the home send many seniors citizens to the hospital with bruises, broken bones, or even head injuries. The presence of a home health aide won't completely eliminate your parent's risk of falling, but it will dramatically lower the likelihood of a fall. Home health aides are trained in identifying things throughout the home that can pose a fall risk, which means that these things can then be removed to make the home safer. Additionally, if your parent has balance issues, the health aide will offer physical support when walking around the home.

Lower Risk Of Medication-Related Issues

When your elderly parent lives alone, he or she may forget to take the proper medication, take the wrong prescription, or take the wrong amount of medication. Any of these issues can land your parent in the hospital with an illness. You won't have this worry when a home health aide is caring for your parent. Aides will make sure that your parent not only takes the right medication, but that he or she also takes the right amount and at the right time.

Lower Risk Of Food-Related Issues

A variety of food-related issues can send elderly people to the hospital. If your parent has food allergies, he or she might inadvertently eat something problematic. Or, your parent may neglect drinking enough water and end up dealing with dehydration. Food issues can also lead to falls. For example, if someone doesn't eat frequently enough, his or her blood glucose might drop and the person may feel lightheaded and fall down. By being in the home and preparing healthy meals, your parent's home health aide will reduce the risk of your parent visiting the hospital for food-related issues.